Photorealism (1960s onwards)

What is Photorealism? - Characteristics

In contemporary
art, the term "photorealism", "photo-realism"
or "photographic realism", describes a style of highly detailed
20th century realist painting in which
the artist attempts to replicate an image from a photograph in all its
microscopic exactness. As a movement, photorealism, sometimes also referred
to as Superrealism or Hyperrealism, came to prominence in
the United States during the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely as a
result of paintings by Chuck
Close (b.1940) and Richard
Estes (b.1936), and the extraordinarily life-like sculpture of John
De Andrea (b.1941) and Duane
Hanson (1925-96). Being wholly representational, photorealist art
is a natural counter to contemporary abstraction.

EVOLUTION
OF VISUAL ART
For details of art movements
and styles, see: History of Art.
For the chronology and dates
of key events in the evolution
of visual arts around the world
see: History of Art Timeline.

WORLD'S BEST ARTISTS
For details of the best modern
painters, since 1800, see:Famous Painters.

MEANING OF ART
For a discussion of the types,
values, and significance of the
visual arts, see: Definition of Art.

How Photorealist Art is Created

Most photorealist painters work directly
from photographs or digital computer images - either by using traditional
grid techniques, or by projecting colour slide imagery onto the canvas.
The aim is to recreate the same sharpness of detail throughout the painting.
Subjects vary - superrealist artists tend to specialize in specific types
of scene, human figure or portrait - but invariably the subject matter
is relatively prosaic and devoid of special interest: it may even be selected
purely for its technical difficulty. In any event the main focus is on
the precision and detail achieved by the artist, and its impact on the
viewer - which can be compelling.

The Impact of Photography and Digital
Imaging

It is thanks to photography
- a century after it first appeared - that superrealist art has been made
possible. How else could the same scene be maintained for the length of
time (days, if not weeks) required? Latterly, the appearance of computer
graphic software, capable of manipulating digital imagery, has also been
a help in enlarging and analyzing pictorial content and colour. As a result,
contemporary American painters like Chuck Close, Richard Estes and Don
Eddy, have achieved a degree of detail that significantly exceeds anything
produced by the great Renaissance artists, like Jan van Eyck, Leonardo
or Titian.

In contrast, photorealism in sculpture
has no relation to photography. This is because sculpture is a three-dimensional
art, whereas both painting and photography are two-dimensional. Superrealist
sculptors therefore have the same problems of technique to overcome as
Renaissance artists.

Origins and History

Photographic realism emerged in the 1960s
as a style of American art, in sharp contrast
to intellectual contemporary
art movements like Abstract Expressionism
and Minimalism. Although nominally a type
of "realism", photorealism was not a successor to earlier types
of American realism practised by the likes of Winslow Homer (1836-1910)
and Edward Hopper (1882-1967). Instead, it was closer to Pop-Art,
whose banal but instantly recognizable imagery it shared. However photorealism
has none of Pop-Art's whimsical humour: rather it tends to be ultra impersonal,
and its meticulous but indiscriminate detail can actually produce a sense
of unreality. Thus whereas Pop artists sought to highlight the absurdity
of much of the media imagery relied upon by the Consumer Society, photorealist
painters and sculptors aim to celebrate the integrity and value of an
image.

Famous Photorealist Artists

The most celebrated members of the American
photo-realist school include top
contemporary artists like Chuck Close (b.1940), who specializes
in gigantic-scale pictures of expressionless faces; Richard Estes
(b.1936), who paints street views with intricate glass-reflections; Audrey
Flack (b.1931), who strives for emotional effect in her vanitas
painting (still lifes with moral messages); Howard Kanovitz
(1929-2009), whose works have the illusion of using figurative cut-outs;
Ralph Goings, Tom Blackwell, Robert Bechtle, and
Robert Cottingham (b.1935) noted for close-ups of advertising signs.
In Europe, famous superrealists include: the Irish painter John
Doherty (b.1940), the British artists Dianne Ibbotson (b.1946),
Michael Leonard (b.1933), Michael English (b.1943), John
Salt (b.1937) and Graham Dean (b.1951), the Frenchman Claude
Yvel (b.1930) and the German painter Gerhard
Richter (b.1932). Other European photorealist artists include:
Roberto Bernardi, Franz Gertsch, Clive Head, Bertrand
Meniel, and Raphaella Spence. Renowned sculptors who work in
the hyperrealist style include: the Verists Duane Hanson (1925-96),
noted for his fibre-glass consumer figures; John de Andrea (b.1941),
who models ultra-realist nudes; Ron Mueck and Robert Gober.